<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Dollmaker's Subject by TheLesbianVampireWriter</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27277531">The Dollmaker's Subject</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLesbianVampireWriter/pseuds/TheLesbianVampireWriter'>TheLesbianVampireWriter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Claudia's Arch [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Interview With the Vampire (1994), Vampire Chronicles - All Media Types, Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adopted Children, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Development, Developing Relationship, Falling In Love, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Vampires, vampire child</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:15:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,811</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27277531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLesbianVampireWriter/pseuds/TheLesbianVampireWriter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>(("Teen &amp; up" and "underage" because uncomfy subjects discussed by someone who's either physically five or twelve.))<br/>Claudia and Madeleine meet, and Madeleine is infatuated with this child who's so cultured; beyond her years. Of course, Claudia has a secret, one she does divulge eventually. It'd been far too long since Claudia was able to speak to someone for such a long time without Louis or Lestat interfering, though she's also, as recently, found someone she deemed worth talking to. Only one day finds Claudia wishing to have this woman be her new mother, but as Louie finds himself falling in love with Armand, a vampire Claudia herself had an affection for, she needs to make the decision of whether to fight for her first love and seasoned protector, or run with this new woman she's fallen head over heels for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Claudia &amp; Madeleine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Claudia's Arch [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991071</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Request</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thought about this ever since I found another Claudia and Madeleine fic that never went much deeper than the first chapter (sadly but understandable because tough subject is tough.) Re-watched <i>Interview </i> for the sake of my other fic and totally forgot how long Claudia had known Madeleine for and how much the second half was about Louie and Armand. Perhaps it's time someone filled in the blank. Non cannon, as always.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Claudia opened the door, the bell’s chime queuing the fumes of paint and dyes. <em>This certainly can’t be good for anyone’s head. I pity the soul who has to work under these conditions!</em> Following these comments, she’d meet the woman who’d lived the pitiful life.</p><p>“Good evening! What brings you here, my child!” the woman was high in spirits but sluggish, like a cheerful being, flagged by life and the day she’s carried. Night had come after all.</p><p>“I wish to purchase or have a doll made, miss. May I stay and browse?”</p><p>“Certainly.” The woman pulled a chair over, prepared to converse. “What kind of doll did you have in mind?”</p><p>“A young woman. One that looks like you?”</p><p>The woman was quizzical before clarifying: “You mean in age? Not to actually use myself as reference, correct?”</p><p>“Any woman, yourself as an example. An artist is their most trusted model.”</p><p>“Huh.” The woman hummed, squinting her eyes at the young girl. “I’ve never had someone request a doll of a young woman, especially not a young lady like yourself. Most girls like you want babies to mother.”</p><p>“You’d be willing to?” Claudia asked.</p><p>The young red-head giggled. “Why wouldn’t I?”</p><p>“As you’ve never had someone request a young woman, I’d never found a dollmaker that’d be willing to take my request.”</p><p>“How odd.” The woman shook her head. “Since I’ve never made this kind of doll before, would it be a bother to have you stay and instruct me on what you want from her?” her hands were folded in her lap as she doted on Claudia.</p><p>“I—” she glanced through the window, finding Louie talking up another person, a young man, and walk off with him. <em>Who’s he off with?</em></p><p>“Miss?” the woman revolved around her desk and knelt at Claudia's feet. “Are you well?”</p><p>“Oh, yes, I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Is a man bothering you?” she glared through the window, searching every face for one staring back inside.</p><p>“No, n—” Claudia was paralyzed upon noticing a strange man was staring in.</p><p>“Who’s bothering you, chérie?” the woman asked, still facing the window and soon discovering the man.</p><p>The man who was staring into the shop was glancing back and forth between the two women in there, his eyes having a lust for both. Claudia discovered him shortly before the woman did, and her distress was clear. “That’s not your father, is he?”</p><p>“I don’t know him.” Claudia's gaze broke with the man as she placed her attention on the woman.</p><p>Once the woman had a straightened back and legs, the man left, and unfortunately the woman didn’t get a well enough vision of him to recount a description or recognize him in a crowd. “Good riddance.” She spat and closed the curtains. “When will your mother and father come to get you?”</p><p>“Oh, I only have a father.” Claudia answered. “He’s busy. I told him I’d be a while. If you don’t mind, I don’t feel safe looking for him.”</p><p>“Of course. Stay for as long as you wish.” She flipped the sign on the door and pivoted herself back to Claudia. “My name is Madeleine, what’s yours?” The woman, Madeleine, beamed and sat at her desk, using charcoal to sketch a design for Claudia's doll.</p><p>“Claudia.”</p><p>“And your father’s name?” Madeleine prodded. “I’d not one to usually ask, but the man from earlier has me startled.”</p><p>“Louis.” Claudia was flattered by Madeleine’s concern for her. “Do you have a husband?”</p><p>“I did, once.” Madeleine sighed, fiddling with a locket she wore as she strategized.</p><p>Though sympathetic and having a strum to her heart she’d never had before, Claudia could only respond: “I’m sorry.” Curious, Claudia caught a glance at the doll Madeleine was designing, opting to suggest: “Would you be able to have her resemble those statues from Ancient Greece? Their depictions they have of the goddesses? As soon as I discovered their existence, I’ve been wanting to travel to see them.”</p><p>“Oh, so a statue?”</p><p>“Not exactly. Would it be too hard to ask for the figure shape with a cloth and plush creation?”</p><p>“With porcelain arms and legs?”</p><p>“Yes, madam.” Claudia nodded.</p><p>“I’m impressed to see such a young girl interested in the sculptures of Greece.” Madeleine admired. “It may take me a while, but you should only need to be here to show me what you want. Tell me what you think of what I have.” She turned the sketch around. Madeleine’s design was basic as most first drafts are, no details in the face at all other than eye nose and mouth placement. The body was broken up into their basic shapes and suggested how the cloth would skin the figure. Her figure had perked breasts caused by the cloth’s fold, with a flat stomach and wide hips. She wouldn’t have the details in the body that the statues could have, perhaps a bellybutton and a back dimple which would be produced with a thread pinching the spots.</p><p>Claudia was conflicted. Should she insist on exacts and details? How much would this cost? Of course, Madeleine could always be rendered unable to take funds upon a feeding night, but Claudia favored the woman, and found difficulty in imagining ending her life over fines. “How much will this cost my father?” she settled.</p><p>Madeleine scrutinized her sketch, taking measurements and calculating. “For this—how much time do I have?”</p><p>“How does a week sound?”</p><p>“I’m feeling quite inspired, thinking about those sculptures you mentioned. If you stay with me for the rest of the night, kept me awake, I could get a significant portion done tonight. I have other commissions I need to care to for the next few days.”</p><p>With wide, excited eyes and a grin, Claudia nodded, interjecting: “I’d love to help you tonight.” She continued with: “You still have commissions? Does anyone help you run the shop?”</p><p>“I have family that comes in every once in a while. That’s what some of the dolls on the shelves are. You’ll notice little disparities between them.” She adjusted one of her many upright sitting babies as though to remind herself of what those variants were.</p><p>“Oh! One more time; how much will this cost?” Claudia inferred.</p><p>“For a week time limit? Since she’ll be such an experiment, especially if she works, all I ask is that you help me tonight and she’s all yours once I’m finished.”</p><p>“Thank you, madam!” Claudia was elated. She’d never seen an art such as doll making be done persistently, and judging by Madeleine’s archives, she was about to witness a mastery that she’d likely never experience again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Someone to Watch Over You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Claudia learns more about the motherly dollmaker, Madeleine, and finds herself falling in love with the woman.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When you got nothing else to use as a title, just pick a piece of dialogue like the Family Guy joke.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Madeleine laid some thin cloth flat across her cutting table to continue her work, sketching along the cloth in speckled lines. “The nice thing about a shop, is if a commission doesn’t come together, that’s what resales are for.”</p><p>“You’ve never had someone angry over a failed commission?”</p><p>“Who’s not had confrontations with buyers? Some children, mostly parents with short fuses.”</p><p>“Oh?”</p><p>“Would you like to hear?”</p><p>“Hm—sure.” Claudia rested her jaw on her knuckles to listen to Madeleine.</p><p>“I had one mother throw down a whole shelf of dolls, in front of her children, no less. Causes one to fear for their bloodline.”</p><p>“My, my.” Claudia gawked in astonishment. “Wouldn’t a child be whipped for such behavior?”</p><p>“Yes, and I wonder if their mother did whip them, and if that is why they act the way they do.” Madeleine chuckled. “Or, did, as my father taught me that customers are different people in business.” She slid her scissors around the patterns she sketched. “So, would you like to discuss this doll? Is it for yourself, my dear?”</p><p>“Yes, and it’s because I—want a reminder of my mother.” Claudia feigned a choking sadness, properly expressed through her memories of what little she had of her real mother.</p><p>“Oh my, I’m sorry.”</p><p>“If you need a reference, we never got a photo of her, but I made a friend whose father takes photographs of women.” She fished the square card from her satchel and slid it on the table towards Madeleine. “From what I remember, this was the closest I’ve been able to find.”</p><p>“She’s lovely. I see a resemblance, and I’d imagine your mother looked even more like you.”</p><p>“Yes, she did, and thank you.” Claudia beamed, gazing into the photo. “I just wish she was here to hear that.”</p><p>“I’m sure she can hear us, and I’m sure she’s proud of the little girl she raised.”</p><p>“If she can, I’m sure she is.” Claudia, though offended by the reference to her form, pondered on if her mother could watch her, from wherever she was, and how she judged of what her daughter had become. But it was a sickening realization, that what she’d done, and what she was planning to do, could be seen by her real mother. <em>Shit, that’ll surly ruin my enjoyment.</em> Claudia had no choice but to shake the images from her mind and focus on new ones, like what Madeleine would do with the doll. The young woman could hardly wait to have her own doll, one of a womanly shape, to play with and pretend it was herself. When she didn’t have the capacity, she’d be a lovely toy for Claudia's hands.</p><p>The artistry in Madeleine’s doll designing was fascinating. Claudia fell in love with Madeleine’s hands and how they sculpted the fabric. Her fingers folding and stitching the body, especially when she finished the legs and moved onto the torso, sculpting the breasts separately. They were too sharp for Claudia's liking, but she’d settle for whatever Madeleine could make for her.</p><p>“Damn it,” Madeleine whispered after her first attempt at stitching the breasts, finding them to be uneven and one was lumpy because of improper stuffing techniques, a technique new to Madeleine and not outlined anywhere in her family’s books. She’d be the first in her lineage to perfect a doll of a woman. Detailing it after her curses, she found more difficulty the further she strayed from her mother’s teachings, explaining: “speaking of mothers, my mother and father married to expand both of their doll making shops. My mother was interested in continuing her dollmaking, though her father, my grandfather, bless his soul, didn’t see a point in teaching his daughter such things. But guess who wouldn’t hear any of that?”</p><p>“Your father?” Claudia answered.</p><p>“Exactly!” Madeleine celebrated Claudia's foresight at such a young age. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but your papa, how was his relationship with your mother?”</p><p>Claudia couldn’t help but daydream in the moment, taking a few seconds to imagine a whole life where Louis was her father, from the beginning, no sickness, no poverty, enjoying a life with her dark angel and her mother, her golden locks matching Claudia's as her features glowed in the night, as she deserved to live. Swallowing her tears, she painted her dreams for Madeleine. “My mother—used to tell me that he was a gentle man who was misunderstood by those around him. His demeanor upset those around him, except her.”</p><p>“How old are you?”</p><p>“Nine.” Claudia lied, no matter how one was familiar with her.</p><p>“Ah, so you remember more than I thought you would.”</p><p>The girl rested her cheeks on her palms. “How old do I look?” Claudia teased.</p><p>“Well, you talk like you’re—” Madeleine chuckled. “Older, I’ll say. You sound older. If I had to go completely on face alone,” she pinched her chin with her hands as she gazed into Claudia's face, “I’d say you were just beginning schooling. If you have any.”</p><p>“Piano, before my mother passed away.”</p><p>“Did she teach you?”</p><p>Switching her plan, Claudia painted the skin of this imaginary mother over Lestat’s actions, the ones she enjoyed, anyway, and ignoring how he passed. “Not at first.” She explained. “After she came in and saw that my instructor was hitting my knuckles, she wouldn’t stand for it.” Claudia smiled to herself, imagining, first, a mother standing up for her, but couldn’t help but wonder if Lestat would do something like that. Though she was still sullen from Lestat’s choice to make her into what she was, imagining him beat the hell out of her ex-piano instructor, conjured a lovely sparkle in her eyes.</p><p>“What age were you when this happened?”</p><p>“Five.” Claudia regretted spitting the age without thinking, without visualizing a timeline first.</p><p>“While I know it’s a way for some parents, I don’t understand hitting a child. It didn’t work in disciplining me, and if it did, I wouldn’t have this shop. As much as my father wanted me to become a dollmaker and continue the family tradition, despite being born female and unable to carry the name past marriage, neither of my parents raised me to be independent. As much as I praise my father for being the one to teach my mother, admittedly, all he did was complete what my grandfather refused to do.”</p><p>“And didn’t lend you such hospitality?”</p><p>“Hospitality? He had plenty, which he shared with both me <em>and</em> my mother.” She explained. “He only had interest in instructing a worker, behind the curtain, or perhaps a seller of her own craft, but not an owner of a shop. They wasted no time in assuring me what a waste of time it’d be.” She giggled slightly, though solemn, a drop of regret slipped in before turning her attention to Claudia. “That being business and numbers. I had to learn math on my own.”</p><p>“So, you never found the man to help you, like your mother did?”</p><p>Madeleine’s eyes, though gazing at Claudia, were distant, with no target in them as she remembered her father and his resemblance to her husband, both men having passed a few months ago. “I did, but he sadly came too late to teach me anything. He helped with my finances though.”</p><p>“That was kind of him.” Claudia pointed Madeleine back to her work. Before having a moment to ask, she read Madeleine’s memories, including her husband’s death, or rather, hearing about it, and then reading of the details. Claudia was horrified over how deeply she allowed herself to enlighten herself on her husband’s demise. Sliding in deeper, she stumbled on the memory of her losing her daughter, months old, had her posed as though she was alive for a photo, all she could afford and survive while running her shop. This photo resided over her heart in a locket, one she wore herself. “Your necklace is very pretty. Is there something in it?” Claudia prodded, connecting with the spirit of her daughter that occupied Madeleine’s mind.</p><p>“Well, since you’re nine, I imagine you’re old enough to hear this.” She popped the locket open and showed the photo, an image Claudia still had from her exploration of Madeleine’s mind, though not as clear. Madeleine’s eyes gleamed with a strongly veiled misery that reflected her inability to drop her work, even for her own sake. “She passed only a month ago, and luckily I had enough funds to have a photo taken of her.”</p><p>“And your husband?”</p><p>Eyebrows upstretched; Madeleine guffawed mockingly. “You predicted my father teaching my mother to make dolls, but not what would become of the husband of a woman who works alone? I’ve mentioned him in the past tense enough, have I not?” upon the statement leaving her tongue, she regretted her emotions overcoming her speech.</p><p>Meekly, Claudia, realizing her mistake, spat: “I’m sorry.” As she didn’t wish to antagonize Madeleine. Their relationship was so close yet so far, and Claudia had already fallen in love with her.</p><p>“No, no, my apologies if I bore aggression that’d be too much. Emotions are an inconvenience.”</p><p>“Perhaps so, but my father says that crying once in a while can help keep those tendencies down and controlled. It isn’t about not having emotions, it’s about finding the appropriate times to use them.”</p><p>“What’s your father’s name? I can’t recall whether you mentioned it or not.”</p><p>“Louis.”</p><p>“That’s right! Oh, the paints are getting to me.” Madeleine sighed. “I don’t know how long my sanity has. My brother became a hatter instead of a dollmaker. Luckily he has his wife to keep him in the right state, but,” she sighed and choked.</p><p>“You need someone to watch over you.” Claudia draped her hand over Madeleine’s. “I’ll watch over you.”</p><p>“But you have a father to go back to.” Madeleine giggled, following it with a kiss to Claudia's scalp, and whispering: “I’ll be fine, young one. I’ve lived on my own long enough. Thank you for staying the night with me, at least.” As Madeleine began working again, Claudia's hands slid to her hips and pulled herself to the woman’s side.</p><p>“You’ll see, you’ll see.”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>